The Essentials of Managing Beehive Pests

Even healthy bee colonies can run into trouble every now and then. Critters (four-legged and multi-legged) can create problems for your hives. Anticipating such trouble can head off disaster. And if any pests get the better of your colony, you’ll need to know what steps to take to prevent things from getting worse.

The killer bees with the bad PR are actually Africanized Honey Bees (AHB), or Apis mellifera scutellata, if you want to get technical. The killer bee pseudonym was the doing of our friends in the media[more…]

A number of products and techniques are available that help reduce or even eliminate Varroa mites populations. This mite, which looks a lot like a tick, is about the size of a pinhead and is visible to[more…]

Trachel mites, organisms that can terrorize the bees in your hive, are much smaller than the period at the end of this sentence and can’t be seen with the naked eye. Dissecting an adult bee and examining[more…]

Tracheal mite infestations are a problem to the bees in your hive, not a hopeless fate. You can take steps to use a number of techniques to prevent things from getting out of control. It isn’t a case of[more…]

Most common beetles that wander in and out of a hive are not a problem, so don’t panic if you see some. But the small hive beetle is an exception. The larvae of this beetle eat wax, pollen, honey, bee[more…]

Even healthy bee colonies can run into trouble every now and then. Critters can create problems for your hives. Anticipating such trouble can head off disaster. And if any of these pests get the better[more…]